Hey guys!
I made a team recently but I feel like I've peaked and I don't know where to go to make it better. I know it definitely can be improved because there are definitely some pokes on the team that aren't pulling their full weight. Lmk whatcha think!
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
This pokemon was extremely useful at lower elos but seems to start falling off with landorus T being so common w/ his devastating intimidate/rocky helmet combo. The focus sash was so that it could beat other sashed pokes which it often outspeeds (exception pheromosa, but greninja/metagross can take that out afterwards) or to trick pokemon like greninja ash into staying in as they normally could OHKO it but sash allows it to take it out. It also serves as a pokemon to switch in on spore or sleep powder and is fairly effective against scolipede teams, as scolipede is unable to touch it and it can swords dance when the scolipede protects. Its relatively low speed to many of my pokemon often leaves it high and dry, unable to outspeed threats that destroy it and overall ineffective. It comes in handy on occasion, but I'm not sure it's the right choice for this team, especially w/ the lack of rapid spin after i removed that from pheromosa in favor of poison jab.
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch
Metagross is another pokemon that seems less than useful, at least with my current set. Its main purpose right now is as a pursuit trapper for latias/latios and extra priority to beat weakened foes (and pheromosa), but even though it resists quite a few types, its hard to switch it in without crippling it and it seems to often fail to do enough damage to take out what it needs to. I don't think this pokemon needs removal but probably a set change, lmk how you feel about it, open to any and all suggestions. It is very useful for beating tapu bulu/tapu lele/nihilego, but that seems to be the extent of its abilities.
Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]
This pokemon can be insane if done right, 2 quiver dances up and you can sweep entire teams if they dont have azumarill/crawdaunt for the yüng aqua jet (high energy). I think its ripped directly from a smogon set, and with good reason, as it's insanely strong, with its z fire blast one shotting garchomp and mega charizard y after a quiver dance, and it frequently sweeps teams. Giga drain is used over bug buzz to hit water types and heal you, and hp ground is to hit other fire types (excluding mega charizard y) and on steel types if you don't want to risk the fire blast. If I choose to send it in at the wrong time it's completely useless, but that's usually just a usage error and I feel that it frequently pulls through for my teams.
Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Power Gem
- Thunder
Very useful as a late game sweeper, but the prevalence of steel types (which resist or are immune to both its stabs) is very frustrating in the early game. This pokemon relies heavily on predictions which can lead to it being very useful or absolutely terrible, but it does well as a pseudo-special tank to eat special hits from special attackers and deal damage on the switch. Thunder oneshots greninja, that's pretty much the only time I use it, hp fire for steel types, power gem and sludge wave as stabs, and the choice scarf outspeeds tapu lele which is handy.
Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- U-turn
This poke is broken as heck if you can get a kill, greninja ash does ridiculous damage with choice specs and has a 60 base power multi hit stab priority move w/ 600+ spA - it's p wild. I play mostly around this and nihilego as if they can get boosts they can take out most other pokemon. U turn is used to keep up momentum in conjunction w/ pheromosa and comes in handy more often for me than ice beam or an hp, as dark pulse has so few resists and will do just as much damage as a x2 HP. I use hydro pump over surf bc I'm willing to sacrifice the accuracy drop for the bonus power, especially when its not yet ash greninja, as that extra power is needed.
Pheromosa @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 104 SpA / 152 Spe
Naughty Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Poison Jab
This things just like super fast, it'll outspeed just about anything and is an excellent pivot and can take pokes out if you can predict switches. takes out landorus t (any set), ferrothorn, garchomp, tapu fini, hoopa ub, and quite a few others, and also helps with the momentum of the team, almost always putting me in a better position than my opponent if I play it right. I ran rapid spin/bug buzz for a while, i found myself never using bug buzz, never getting a chance to use rapid spin, as that destroyed my momentum, and tapu fini switching into me too much, so I changed to poison jab to take that sucker out. Poison jab also serves as a check to tapu koko which comes in handy v often. The recoil from high jump kick is always a lil scary due to protect, ghost types, and just missing, but that doesn't happen too often, so im not super worried abt that. It does fail to ohko keldeo, which is super unfortunate, but manageable in conjunction w/ other pokes.
Flaws I've noticed:
- Hard to deal w/ scarf keldeo
- hard to deal w/ mega charizard x (if i don't predict)
- struggles against very tanky teams
- kartana and metagross are less than useful
- ghost and water resists are compiled entirely on greninja, which is not a bulky pkmn to begin w/
- no electric resists for tapu koko/xurkitree
Anyways! I peaked at 1577 but I've gotten to higher elos before SM so I'm fairly certain that part of my lack of ability to gain elo is a limitation of the team I'm using. I'm open to any and all suggestions!
I made a team recently but I feel like I've peaked and I don't know where to go to make it better. I know it definitely can be improved because there are definitely some pokes on the team that aren't pulling their full weight. Lmk whatcha think!
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
This pokemon was extremely useful at lower elos but seems to start falling off with landorus T being so common w/ his devastating intimidate/rocky helmet combo. The focus sash was so that it could beat other sashed pokes which it often outspeeds (exception pheromosa, but greninja/metagross can take that out afterwards) or to trick pokemon like greninja ash into staying in as they normally could OHKO it but sash allows it to take it out. It also serves as a pokemon to switch in on spore or sleep powder and is fairly effective against scolipede teams, as scolipede is unable to touch it and it can swords dance when the scolipede protects. Its relatively low speed to many of my pokemon often leaves it high and dry, unable to outspeed threats that destroy it and overall ineffective. It comes in handy on occasion, but I'm not sure it's the right choice for this team, especially w/ the lack of rapid spin after i removed that from pheromosa in favor of poison jab.
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch
Metagross is another pokemon that seems less than useful, at least with my current set. Its main purpose right now is as a pursuit trapper for latias/latios and extra priority to beat weakened foes (and pheromosa), but even though it resists quite a few types, its hard to switch it in without crippling it and it seems to often fail to do enough damage to take out what it needs to. I don't think this pokemon needs removal but probably a set change, lmk how you feel about it, open to any and all suggestions. It is very useful for beating tapu bulu/tapu lele/nihilego, but that seems to be the extent of its abilities.
Volcarona @ Firium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]
This pokemon can be insane if done right, 2 quiver dances up and you can sweep entire teams if they dont have azumarill/crawdaunt for the yüng aqua jet (high energy). I think its ripped directly from a smogon set, and with good reason, as it's insanely strong, with its z fire blast one shotting garchomp and mega charizard y after a quiver dance, and it frequently sweeps teams. Giga drain is used over bug buzz to hit water types and heal you, and hp ground is to hit other fire types (excluding mega charizard y) and on steel types if you don't want to risk the fire blast. If I choose to send it in at the wrong time it's completely useless, but that's usually just a usage error and I feel that it frequently pulls through for my teams.
Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Power Gem
- Thunder
Very useful as a late game sweeper, but the prevalence of steel types (which resist or are immune to both its stabs) is very frustrating in the early game. This pokemon relies heavily on predictions which can lead to it being very useful or absolutely terrible, but it does well as a pseudo-special tank to eat special hits from special attackers and deal damage on the switch. Thunder oneshots greninja, that's pretty much the only time I use it, hp fire for steel types, power gem and sludge wave as stabs, and the choice scarf outspeeds tapu lele which is handy.
Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- U-turn
This poke is broken as heck if you can get a kill, greninja ash does ridiculous damage with choice specs and has a 60 base power multi hit stab priority move w/ 600+ spA - it's p wild. I play mostly around this and nihilego as if they can get boosts they can take out most other pokemon. U turn is used to keep up momentum in conjunction w/ pheromosa and comes in handy more often for me than ice beam or an hp, as dark pulse has so few resists and will do just as much damage as a x2 HP. I use hydro pump over surf bc I'm willing to sacrifice the accuracy drop for the bonus power, especially when its not yet ash greninja, as that extra power is needed.
Pheromosa @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 104 SpA / 152 Spe
Naughty Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Poison Jab
This things just like super fast, it'll outspeed just about anything and is an excellent pivot and can take pokes out if you can predict switches. takes out landorus t (any set), ferrothorn, garchomp, tapu fini, hoopa ub, and quite a few others, and also helps with the momentum of the team, almost always putting me in a better position than my opponent if I play it right. I ran rapid spin/bug buzz for a while, i found myself never using bug buzz, never getting a chance to use rapid spin, as that destroyed my momentum, and tapu fini switching into me too much, so I changed to poison jab to take that sucker out. Poison jab also serves as a check to tapu koko which comes in handy v often. The recoil from high jump kick is always a lil scary due to protect, ghost types, and just missing, but that doesn't happen too often, so im not super worried abt that. It does fail to ohko keldeo, which is super unfortunate, but manageable in conjunction w/ other pokes.
Flaws I've noticed:
- Hard to deal w/ scarf keldeo
- hard to deal w/ mega charizard x (if i don't predict)
- struggles against very tanky teams
- kartana and metagross are less than useful
- ghost and water resists are compiled entirely on greninja, which is not a bulky pkmn to begin w/
- no electric resists for tapu koko/xurkitree
Anyways! I peaked at 1577 but I've gotten to higher elos before SM so I'm fairly certain that part of my lack of ability to gain elo is a limitation of the team I'm using. I'm open to any and all suggestions!
